Review: Nebula Awards Showcase 2017

What’s up in sci-fi? Every year, all of science fiction-dom holds their collective breath for that most prestigious of Awards: the Nebulas. Along with the Hugo Awards, the Nebulas (Nebulae?) feature the very best of the best for the genre. First awarded in 1965, a historical list of the Nebula Awards reads like a Who’s Who of science fiction, and includes such now iconic classics as Larry Niven’s Ringworld (1970) and Frank Herbert’s Dune (1965) as past winners.

And the 2017 batch is no different. This week’s review of the 2017 Nebula Awards Showcase edited by Julie E. Czerneda features fantastic tales covering the gamut from science fantasy to hard science fiction. Out next month from Prometheus Books‘ Pyr imprint, the 2017 Nebula Awards Showcase is a great compendium for the highlights of the year.

Some of our faves from the 2017 Nebula crop were:

1st Highlight – Our Lady of the Open Road, by Sarah Pinsker (Novella category) This one about an alt-band in a future where hipsters eschew self-driving cars (lots of self driving cars in modern sci-fi, it seems) grabbed our attention. Not a typical rockets and rayguns story, Our Lady of the Open Road is a worthy depiction of a near future world that is at once familiar and startlingly different. Kind of a futuristic Easy Rider journey across a post-tech Americana.

2nd Highlight – Cat Pictures Please, by Naomi El-Mohtar (Short story) also a winner for the 2016 Hugo for Best Story. Something straight out of Black Mirror. Perhaps, a truly malevolent AI will first succeed in winning us over with cute fuzzy little feline .jpgs. It’s amazing how much of the horror sci-fi (re: think Black Mirror again) can now actually terrify us with something as mundane as sharing cat photos. Is it because we’re close enough now that we can see such a terrifying vision wrapped up in such a neat package from here, whereas a few decades ago, we could at least find solace in the fact that such a dystopian future was still a ways off?

3rd Highlight – Updraft by Fran Wilde (Novel category) Updraft was also nominated for and won the Andre Norton Award. A winged knife fight in a wind tunnel was never deadlier. But avoiding the skymouths and achieving apprenticeship are only some of the challenges laid out in the future fantasy world.

Dwarf stars and science fiction poetry also make a good showing in the 2017 Nebula collection. These little bite sized nuggets of sci-fi are great starters to the rich world of speculative fiction poetry. Watch for F.J. Bergmann’s Rhysling Poetry Award Winner for best long poem, 100 Reasons to have Sex With an Alien to see what I mean.

Don’t miss the Nebula Awards Showcase 2017 for the year’s best in science fiction and fantasy!

Other notable science fiction awards are rolled in to the collection as well, including the Ray Bradbury, Andre Norton, Damon Knight Grand master and Kate Wilhelm Solstice Awards.

Astro Documentaries

Pictured is a Delta IV rocket launch from Cape Canaveral on November 21st, 2010. The image is a 20 second exposure taken at dusk, shot from about 100 miles west of the launch site. The launch placed a classified payload in orbit for the United States Air Force.

DIY Astronomy

Difficult but not impossible to catch against the dawn or dusk sky, spotting an extreme crescent moon can be a challenge. The slender crescent pictured was shot 30 minutes before sunrise when the Moon was less than 20 hours away from New. A true feat of visual athletics to catch, a good pair of binoculars or a well aimed wide field telescopic view can help with the hunt.

The Sun is our nearest star, and goes through an 11-year cycle of activity. This image was taken via a properly filtered telescope, and shows the Sun as it appeared during its last maximum peak in 2003. This was during solar cycle #23, a period during which the Sun hurled several large flares Earthward. The next solar cycle is due to peak around 2013-14.

Astronomy Gear Reviews

Located in the belt of the constellation Orion, Messier 42, also known as the Orion Nebula is one of the finest deep sky objects in the northern hemisphere sky. Just visible as a faint smudge to the naked eye on a clear dark night, the Orion Nebula is a sure star party favorite, as it shows tendrils of gas contrasted with bright stars. M42 is a large stellar nursery, a star forming region about 1,000 light years distant.

Astronomical Observing Targets

Orbiting the planet in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) every 90 minutes, many people fail to realize that you can see the International Space Station (ISS) from most of the planet on a near-weekly basis. In fact, the ISS has been known to make up to four visible passes over the same location in one night. The image pictured is from the Fourth of July, 2011 and is a 20 second exposure of a bright ISS pass.

Next to the Sun, the two brightest objects in the sky are the Moon and the planet Venus. In fact, when Venus is favorably placed next to the Moon, it might just be possible to spot the two in the daytime. Another intriguing effect known as earthshine or ashen light is also seen in the image on the night side of the Moon; this is caused by sunlight reflected back off of the Earth towards our only satellite.

A mosaic of three images taken during the total lunar eclipse of December 21st, 2010. The eclipse occurred the same day as the winter solstice. The curve and size of the Earth’s shadow is apparent in the image.